Breathtaking City of Culture Celebrations: the reviews are in

As we celebrate the final month as the UK's City of Culture, we've seen multiple events of varying sizes take over the city. 

On Saturday 14 May, over 1000 local people took part in This Is The City a parade through the streets of Coventry, with the procession spanning 1km in length. Each section of the parade was based on the 12 themes that have led the UK City of Culture year: Welcome, Sanctuary, Harmony, Freedom, Peace, Utopia,
Coventry in the World, City of Light, Being Human, Hope, Amazing Women and Green Futures. 

The Sun described it as a "riot of colour" and The Sunday Times as "an explosion of joy".

The Sunday Mercury commented "the parade was a mash-up of the wonderful creative events that have marked the year, from City Hosts to all night raves and community choirs to faith leaders".

The ground-breaking French performance company Gratte Ciel took over the Broadgate, at the heart of Coventry's city centre on Friday 13 and Saturday 14 May. Described by Outdoor Arts UK as a "hypnotic, visual spectacle" the sold-out audience were "immersed in a colourful world of song, dance and circus....weaving astounding acrobatics, high altitude aerial and a mesmerising soundtrack with live musicians, and monumental set design". The BBC described Gratte Ciel's The Awakening, as "breathtaking". Read BBC Online

Sunday 15 May saw the record breaking drone show Our Wilder Family take to the skies in Coventry's War Memorial Park, where 27,000 spectators watched 360 drones take to the skies in the UK's longest drone display. The BBC shared that Our Wilder Family "creates memories to last for years". Listen to BBC CWR's Siobhan Harrison describe the test flight. 

The BBC's Lara Lewington offered her opinion on the VR experience In Pursuit of Repetitive Beats, "I've got bass in a backpack, THIS IS AMAZING!" Watch Lara's report. Whilst Computer Weekly advised that Mark Zuckerberg should be "sent to Coventry" in reference to the multi-sensory experience . Read the full article on computerweekly.com

Looking forward to the City of Culture's legacy, Wanderlust reported on The Reel Store's opening; commenting that "The exciting new attraction will allow high-quality art commissions to be projected onto walls, filling the rooms with moving colours, lights and sounds." Read about The Reel Store in Wanderlust

The first exhibition to open the UK's first permanent immersive digital gallery is Refik Anadol's Machine Memoirs: Space. The Phoenix Newspaper described the exhibition as "a 360 degree cinematic experience of rich and futuristic visuals accompanied by 3D audio, allowing audiences to encounter the beauty and spectacle of space science, created entirely through AI. Refik Anadol is a pioneer in the aesthetics of data and machine intelligence. His work intersects at the crossroads of art, science, and technology." Read the full article in The Phoenix Newspaper.